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gymnerdreader 's review for:
Identical
by Ellen Hopkins
I admire Ellen Hopkins for always upping the ante and pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable in YA. In fact, I love how YA has transformed as a genre over the years, but I just couldn’t bring myself to like this one. It’s too much. I’ve heard people say this book made them uncomfortable, but that was an understatement for me. This book was disturbing, twisted, disgusted and I just could not connect with hit because mentally I had to take a step back. We grow by being uncomfortable and there is no way to approach the subject of abuse with comfortability, however this one just made me so uncomfortable that mentally I couldn’t take it.
What I liked:
-Ellen Hopkin’s Intent-look I admire her intent with what she sought to do here. She pushed the boundaries with this story and I admire that. It’s about a very taboo topic (incest, sexual abuse) one that unfortunately some people may relate to. I like and admire the risk she took. It just didn’t pay off imo
-Writing style is beautiful-Ellen Hopkins is a masterful verse writer and she writes it exceptionally well. This was lovely and beautifully written, however it couldn’t save it for me.
What I didn’t Like:
-It is too disturbing-I’ve alluded to this previously, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get into this. It was way too much trauma and even I mentally couldn’t handle it. Hopkins included every possible traumatic scenario that could possibly happen to someone and write a book about it and well it was way too much. It was so disturbing and twisted that it took away from the overall story and left a sour taste in my mouth.
-Triggering-While I believe this book had the potential to start a conversation about the ramifications of abuse I don’t think this book would be a good example to illustrate that. It’s more triggering than anything. In this sense, I believe it would cause more harm than good. That’s what I mean when I say this book was too much. It could have been used to start conversation, like Speak was able to do, but instead this book just managed to be too much trauma and nothing else. It was hard to read this and incredibly mentally draining. I had to stop myself multiple times because I just couldn’t continue.
-No plot- I actually am at a lost for the actual plot of this. If I could describe this it would be 600 pages of trauma and self destruction. There isn’t much else that happens. The trauma and abuse in this story outweighed the actual story
-Disconnect from the story-I unfortunately couldn’t connect with this story due to how disturbing it was. I’m all for books that are disturbing and slightly twisted, but this one took the cake.
In the end, I’m not sure this book is going to do much in terms of starting a conversation. I think the intensity of the subject matter does the opposite. I think it was more triggering and potentially harmful than good. I’m not exactly sure why this was targeted to YA because this is not YA subject material and I would not recommend it to anyone.
It’s been hard for me to review this, but it’s not the worst book I’ve ever read. It’s not Outlawed level, but it isn’t great either. I think this book had potential to be so much more than what it actually was. A book has to be more than just trauma and self destruction. There has to be more to it than mere shock value. At the end of the day disturbing material isn’t what makes a story a story and it’s not what starts a conversation about taboo topics. This book had potential, the writing was lovely, but unfortunately even that couldn’t save this one for me.
It is literally quite possibly one of the most messed up books I’ve ever read and not in a good way...
Read again? NO WAY!!! PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION!
Rating: 2/5 (I had an awfully hard time rating this one, but I couldn’t bring myself to give 3 stars. I just couldn’t)
What I liked:
-Ellen Hopkin’s Intent-look I admire her intent with what she sought to do here. She pushed the boundaries with this story and I admire that. It’s about a very taboo topic (incest, sexual abuse) one that unfortunately some people may relate to. I like and admire the risk she took. It just didn’t pay off imo
-Writing style is beautiful-Ellen Hopkins is a masterful verse writer and she writes it exceptionally well. This was lovely and beautifully written, however it couldn’t save it for me.
What I didn’t Like:
-It is too disturbing-I’ve alluded to this previously, but I just couldn’t bring myself to get into this. It was way too much trauma and even I mentally couldn’t handle it. Hopkins included every possible traumatic scenario that could possibly happen to someone and write a book about it and well it was way too much. It was so disturbing and twisted that it took away from the overall story and left a sour taste in my mouth.
-Triggering-While I believe this book had the potential to start a conversation about the ramifications of abuse I don’t think this book would be a good example to illustrate that. It’s more triggering than anything. In this sense, I believe it would cause more harm than good. That’s what I mean when I say this book was too much. It could have been used to start conversation, like Speak was able to do, but instead this book just managed to be too much trauma and nothing else. It was hard to read this and incredibly mentally draining. I had to stop myself multiple times because I just couldn’t continue.
-No plot- I actually am at a lost for the actual plot of this. If I could describe this it would be 600 pages of trauma and self destruction. There isn’t much else that happens. The trauma and abuse in this story outweighed the actual story
-Disconnect from the story-I unfortunately couldn’t connect with this story due to how disturbing it was. I’m all for books that are disturbing and slightly twisted, but this one took the cake.
In the end, I’m not sure this book is going to do much in terms of starting a conversation. I think the intensity of the subject matter does the opposite. I think it was more triggering and potentially harmful than good. I’m not exactly sure why this was targeted to YA because this is not YA subject material and I would not recommend it to anyone.
It’s been hard for me to review this, but it’s not the worst book I’ve ever read. It’s not Outlawed level, but it isn’t great either. I think this book had potential to be so much more than what it actually was. A book has to be more than just trauma and self destruction. There has to be more to it than mere shock value. At the end of the day disturbing material isn’t what makes a story a story and it’s not what starts a conversation about taboo topics. This book had potential, the writing was lovely, but unfortunately even that couldn’t save this one for me.
It is literally quite possibly one of the most messed up books I’ve ever read and not in a good way...
Read again? NO WAY!!! PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION!
Rating: 2/5 (I had an awfully hard time rating this one, but I couldn’t bring myself to give 3 stars. I just couldn’t)